Are returns to education on the decline in Venezuela and does Mission Sucre have a role to play?

作者：Gonzalez Naihobe; Oyelere Ruth Uwaifo^*

来源：Economics of Education Review, 2011, 30(6): 1348-1369.

DOI：10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.07.007

• Human capital
• Economic impact
• Rate of return
• Educational economics

Anecdotal evidence points to a falling standard of living for the educated in Venezuela. During this same period, President Hugo Chavez implemented several education reforms. We focus on a major university education reform known as Mission Sucre and its potential impact on returns to university education. First, we show that returns to education decreased significantly in Venezuela from 2002 to 2008. Subsequently, we explore the impact of the program on non-program participants and provide evidence that a substantial part of the falling returns at the tertiary level can be linked to Mission Sucre. Our results suggest that the reform created a negative externality on students who did not participate in the program, leading to a 2.7 percentage point decline in returns to university education for non-Mission Sucre students in the 23-28 age cohort.

• 出版日期2011-12